A Walk in the Woods
by Leaping Lion
Summary: He knew that Old Men were the wrong sort to be around...but hey, he had candy. Add in a House of House Elves plus one Potions Master and you've got one twisted read.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Severus Snape, or Voldemrot/Voldemort. I DO however, own the 8th House-elf who's name shall be a close kept secret...

-0-

Harry stared at the old man in front of him with a look of utter disgust and confusion. This old man, who must have been a million years old, was holding out a little yellow pebble sized treat for him.

"Go on, my boy…" the old man's eyes twitched and pushed his hand further into Harry's face, "Have a Lemon Drop. I swear it tastes good!" The old man's body twitched with his eye this time.

"Um, I'm not sopost to take-"

"TAKE THE LEMON DROP MY DEAR BOY!!" The old man yelled at him.

Harry's eyes widened and he grabbed at the treat and shoved it into his mouth to please the old man who was really freaking him out. Suddenly the old man let out a cackle that almost had Harry run for cover.

"That will poison you and you will slowly fall into a never ending sleep, my dear boy. " The old man let off another cackle and Harry seriously thought he had lost his mind somewhere along the line.

However, before Harry could even say another word to himself or in his head he started to sway and yawn.

_I knew I should have gone to bed instead of watching that knight marathon…_

Then Harry fell to the ground into a dead sleep.

-0-

Severus Snape hated, with a deep passion, meadows. He really did.

No one really understood why he did, after all most of his potion ingredients came from meadow just like this one.

Course, the little cottage with happy bunnies and deer might not be in all the other meadows he got his ingredients from.

In fact, where the hell was he?

He didn't know of any cottages in this area of the woods and he certainly didn't know why someone would want a cottage in the middle of the evil forest the common people called "Voldemrot".

…or was it "Voldemort"? Oh well, no one cared.

Severus made his way to the cottage and when he opened the door he was surrounded by little bald creatures.

_House Elves. _He thought. Now it made sense why there was a cottage in the middle of the dark and evil Forest people called "Voldemrot/Voldemort".

House elves love to clean houses and make food, but don't like to be seen. People have often come home to see the house clean and food on the table and no one around for miles. They blamed it on the House Elves and went on with their lives.

"Oh brave Sir! You's must help us!" One of them said in a high and squeaky voice.

Severus raised an eyebrow and looked at them. There were eight in all. Rather odd and ugly creatures, he had to admit.

"Yes, yes! You's must help us!!" Another house elf, who had a small patch of white hair on his head, said as he jumped up and down.

"Fine. What can I help you with?" was all he said. Apparently, it pleased the house elves and they all gave squeaky yells of "Yay!"

"You must help our young Harry! He is under a evil spell and we can't wake him!!" This time, he was answered by a house elf that was dressed in an old sack.

_This reminds me of that story my mother used to tell me about the princess that pricked her finger and fell asleep. Course... she wouldn't tell me anymore after that because I kept telling her it was impossible unless the needle was covered in a potion of sort. Like the –_

_Wait, young Harry?_

Several years earlier, a young duke had gone missing and no one had been able to find him. They had called him Harry, and no one knew his last name due to his parents having died and him being passed off to his relatives, the Dursleys.

"Where is he?"

Severus was then dragged by all eight house elves into a small room in the back of the house. The room was dark and covered in small candles. It had a window, closed at the moment, and a bed.

In the bed was a young man, probably 17 or 18, if Severus guessed right. He was covered in blankets and appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

"It was so scary, sir! We's was just cleaning the house like normally one day and we saw an old man speaking with our young Harry. He was old, really, really old!" Several other house elves nodded and chanted 'old old'.

"He had the longest beard I had ever seen's sirs! And he had these odd unfocused blue eyes! Scary scary!" the other house elves chanted along again 'scary scary!'.

"Then he held out his hand and it held a small yellow treat. He started telling our Harry to take it, and when our young Harry did he fell to the ground and we haven't been able to awakened him since! Oh help him brave Sir!"

Severus looked at the boy and grimaced. _Probably hasn't had a bath in forever!_ When he kneeled down to take a closer look he smelled a small amount of rain and what Severus could only describe as sunshine.

Not that he smelled Sunshine every day...

When he went to grab something out of the pouch he had with him one of the house elves gasped at him in surprise.

"No, no, sirs! You must kiss him to wake him up!! Like all those fairy tales!" at this the house elves signed wistfully and then glanced at him.

"Why would I do that?! I could just give him a potion and he'll be cured I'm most certain!" he reached into his bag once more and scowled at the house elves when they grabbed it and two went running off with it.

"You foolish house elves! Give me back my belongings!!" He growled at the remaining elves causing some to cower and others to just stare at him.

"Fix our young Harry and we's give them back." The main house elf told him and then pointed at the boy in the bed.

"My bag has a few potions-", he was cut off by a glare, "Oh you want me to…kiss…him." The house elves nodded and he sighed.

_This is the stupidest thing I have ever done. These house elves must be insane._

But Severus did what they asked and leaned down to kiss the boy.

He couldn't describe how he felt.

Oh wait, yes he could.

He felt very very silly.

When Severus finally pulled back and went to smirk at the house elves for their obviously failed plan, he heard a rustle from beside him and watched as the boy in the bed opened his eyes.

Severus' breath caught as he found himself locked into the stare of emerald green eyes.

"Who…are you?" was all it took to snap Severus out of his shock.

"Young Master Harry! You's is awake! We's be making a feast to celebrate!" the house elves jumped around in excitement and ran out.

Severus sighed.

_I really shouldn't have woken up this morning._

-0-

After a few hours of feasting on the delicious meal the house elves had prepared them, he finally had some time alone with 'Young Harry'.

"How did you end up here?"

"I got lost in the woods a few years back and stumbled upon this cottage and I've been here ever since."

_You spent time with these insane house elves. Dear god, he might be crazy._

"What's your name? I never got it, and the house elves have already told you my name."

"Severus Snape."

"_The_ Severus Snape? I heard about you! My relatives used to say you were the best Potions Master in the court! You're a Lord as well, are you not? So it would be Lord Severus Snape, yes?" The boy, Harry, said in a rush and looked at him in pure surprise and happiness.

Severus blinked in shock and the nodded, "Yes Lord Snape is my official title in the court, but I prefer to just be called Severus Snape. I never did like those fancy titles the court forces on me."

Harry smiled and gave a small laugh, "Never heard of someone disliking their title."

"Now you have."

Harry gave another small smile and then drove him into a conversation about potions, to his surprise. He learned that Harry was very interested in potions, and knew much about them; 

unlike those idiots at the court who drabbled on and on without really knowing what they were talking about.

-0-

Several hours later and several potions debated past, Harry looked outside and gasped.

His gasp caused Severus to stop what he was talking about and ask what was wrong.

"It's almost sunset! My chattering has caused us to lose track of the time. I didn't mean to keep you so long Lord Snape!" Harry jumped to his feet and stumbled.

Severus jumped to his own feet and grabbed Harry's arm before he fell. Harry looked at him and then blushed before turning away and calling for one of the elves.

"Dobby! Ah, there you are Dobby, can you get Lord Snape's bags and some supplies for his trip back please? I seem to have kept him much too long." The house elf smiled and nodded before running off to go get his things.

Severus watched at the house elf returned with his bag and some supplies and walked to the door with Harry. Once they were outside the cottage, Harry continued to walk with him till they were near the end of the meadow.

"I enjoyed sending this evening with you, Harry." Severus said before he could stop himself. He had to restrain himself from smiling when Harry blushed and agreed with him.

As they finished their goodbyes and Severus started to walk off, Harry called out to him:

"If you want… You can come and visit me anytime… Severus."

He turned around and gave a small smile at the now blushing young man behind him.

"I'll be sure to do that."

-0-

Well then, I have NO idea where this came from. I meant for this to be utterly humorous and so cliché when I started it off and I don't really know how all this came out.

However, I have always viewed Dumbledore to be WAY too obsessed with lemon drops for it to be sane.


End file.
